Making Mothers: Missionaries, Medical Officers and Women's Work in Colonial Asante, 19241945
Author(s): Jean Allman
Source: History Workshop, No. 38 (1994), pp. 23-47
Published by: Oxford University Press
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Methodist Women's Training Centre, Kwadaso (taken by author, 1992)
Making Mothers: Missionaries,Medical
Officersand Women's Work in Colonial
Asante, 19241945
by Jean Allman
For four days in June, 1931, government,churchand businessrepresentatives fromeight Europeancountriesand from severalcolonialterritoriesin
Africamet in Genevato discussthe welfareof Africanchildren.'Summoned
by the Save the Children InternationalUnion during the depths of the
world-wideDepression, the participantsdiscussed the applicationof the
1924Declarationof Geneva andits provisionsfor the protectionof children
to the childrenof colonized Africa. Echoingmuchof the broaderdiscourse
surroundingmaternaland infantwelfare of the late 1920sand early 1930s,
the conference participantsblamed social diseases, poverty, 'native midwives and their anti-hygienicpractices', mothers' 'carelessness'and 'irrational feeding' of infants, superstition and, finally, 'lack of sufficient
medical aid' for infant mortalityrates which exceeded seventy percent in
some areas. Although the conference repudiatedthe 'tendencyto blame
the mother', its publishedconclusionsfocussed almost exclusivelyon the
education of mothers and children and avoided pronouncementson the
effects of migrantand forcedlabour,cash-croppingor taxation.3Indeed, as
Evelyn Sharp, the conference's chronicler, wrote, 'the urgent need for
education .
.
. was brought persistently to the notice of the delegates,
although the questions before them were nominally pathological and
economic'. In short, 'Making African History at Geneva' (the title of
Sharp'sfirstchapter)required,above all, the makingof Africanmothers.
History WorkshopJournal Issue 38
? History Workshop Journal 1994
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History Workshop Journal
24
Students at the Mmofraturo School in 1932.
Methodist Missionary Society, Overseas Division.
.
:~~~~~*4
4
............
...
s photgrap
Author..
Persis Beer, no date.
Mmofraturo School, Kumasi.
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MakingMothers
25
In seekingto addressthe welfareof Africanwomen and childrenalmost
exclusively through social and educative solutions aimed at women and
children (particularlyat their hygiene and nutrition), the conference
avoided the obvious issues of economic exploitationand political expediency. In this sense, its proceedingsboth reflected and inspired an international discourse aimed at constructingproper, nurturingmotherhood
(accordingto Europeanmiddle-classcriteria)out of biologicalmaternity,
irrespectiveof economic, culturalor social context.4Though in practice
mediatedin significantwaysby race, classand place, it was a discoursethat
impactedupon women living in communitiesas far apartas the workingclass districtsof Liverpool and London and the farmingvillages of West
Africa.5
For example, those entrustedwith making'proper'mothersin Britain's
African territories- missionaries,nurses, teachers and women medical
officers- carriedwith them the social baggage of Britain'smaternaland
infant-welfare policies at home, particularlythose initiated after the
Anglo-BoerWar.6These policieswerebasedon healthofficials'perceptions
of infant mortalityas a direct result of the 'failureof motherhood'.7They
stressed,above all else, hygieneand nutritionthrougheducation,or, in the
ennobling terminologyof the time, the essentialsof 'mothercraft'.8They
were policies Britain's'maternalimperialists',as BarbaraRamusackhas
termedthem, could readilytransportto the colonies. They did not require
any critique of the economic or environmentaleffects of colonialismon
maternaland infantwelfare, but they could be marshalledagainsta host of
social problems,from populationdecline and infantmortality,to sexually
transmitteddiseases, prostitutionand adultery.9The British imperialist
enterprisein the twentiethcentury,in otherwords,wasintimatelyboundup
with makingmothers- both at home and in the colonies.10
This paper looks at one small chapterin the story of motherhoodand
colonialism.Thatit can be situatedin the broaderdiscourseof maternaland
infantwelfareis importantfor purposesof comparisonandcontext, but the
story that follows is far more circumscribed.It focusseson effortsto 'make
mothers'in Asante- one smallpartof the Britishempire.ThisformerWest
African kingdom,whichwas eventuallyincorporatedinto the Gold Coast
(afterindependence,Ghana), did not come underBritishcolonialruleuntil
1901 and initiatives directed at maternal and infant welfare did not get
underway until well into the 1920s and '30s. Thus, Asante women's
encounterswithBritishattemptsto colonizethe maternal,as it were, survive
todayas lived experiencesin the memoriesof manyold women. At the same
time, some of the womenmissionariesandteachershaveleft writtenrecords
- personalcorrespondence,reports and articles- describingtheir experiences as 'maternalimperialists'.'1What follows is an attemptto privilege
these voices, to centre the encounter between 'maternalimperialist'and
Asante woman. Whatwas makingmothersall about if you were doing the
'making'or if you were the motherbeing made?Whiledelegateson a sunny
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26
History Workshop Journal
Geneva afternoonponderedthe unreliablestatisticson infantmortalityand
debated agendas for uplifting African women, twenty or thirty Asante
women in the town of Tafo gatheredin the shade of an odum tree. There,
more out of curiosity than anything else, they watched a Methodist
missionary,SisterPersisBeer, and severalof her studentsdemonstratehow
properly to bathe a baby. The week before, the women had been
entertainedby a lengthy session on makingpancakes. Far from Geneva's
Salle Centrale,farfromthe committeeroomsof Britain'sColonialOffice,it
was basins and bathpowder,pancakesand biscuits. Was this the 'stuff'of
whichmotherswere to be made?12
IndirectRuleand Mothercraft:Colonizingthe Maternalin Asante
Initially in Asante neither the colonial government, the missions nor
Asante's chiefs appearedvery interestedin women'seducationor maternal
andchildwelfare.After 1924,however,therewas an explosionof interestin
the welfareof women and childrenin Asante that can be explainedonly in
partby factorsandforcesexternalto Asante itself, by eventslike the Geneva
Conference. It is this paper's contention that the education and welfare
initiativesaimed at Asante women duringthe 1920s and 1930shave to be
understoodwithin the context of a broadercrisis in gender relationsthat
shook Asante duringthose verysamedecades.The genderchaos, as it were,
thataccompaniedthe spreadof cocoa as a cashcrop(particularlyafter1920)
and the expansion of the trade in foodstuffs (a trade women tended to
control) had profoundrepercussionson relationshipsbetween Asante men
and women. Marriage, divorce and maternal/paternalresponsibilities
towardchildrenin this matrilinealsociety were contested, challengedand,
at times, redefinedas a result of sweepingeconomicchangesrooted in the
expansionof cocoa. Let us look brieflyat some of those changes.
Few would dispute Gareth Austin's recent contention that the labour
necessaryfor the rapidspreadof cocoa, whichsawexportsfromthe arearise
fromeight poundsto over 170,000tons duringthe period 1890-1918,came
'verylargelyfromestablished,non-capitalistsources'.13After the abolition
of slaveryand the prohibitionof pawning*in Asante in 1908,wives became
one of the main sources of that unpaid labour, particularlyin the initial
establishmentof cocoa farms.14In many ways, wives' provisionof labour
flowed logically from pre-cocoa productiveobligationsbetween spouses.
Wivescommonlygrewfood cropson landclearedby theirhusbands- crops
whichboth fed the familyand provideda surpluswhichwives were entitled
to sell. When cocoa farmswere firstestablished,the patterndifferedlittle.
In the firstthree to fouryearsof theirexistence,the only returnsfromcocoa
farms were the food crops - particularlycrops like plantain or cocoyam
whichwere plantedto shade the young trees duringtheir firstyears. After
* In Asante, the practice of human pawning entailed a debtor giving a person to a creditor as
security on a debt. On repayment, the pawn was returned.
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MakingMothers
27
that point, however, food crops (that is, the wife's only material and
guaranteedreturnon her labourinvestmentin the farm) diminished.The
main productof the farmnow became the cocoa beans whichbelonged, in
whole, to the husband. Any labourinvested by a wife after a cocoa farm
became maturewas directlycompensated'only in the continuedobligation
of her husband', as Penelope Roberts writes, 'to provide part of her
subsistencefromhis own earnings'.15
Obviously, for wives, the investment of labour in a husband'scocoa
farm meant benefits in the short-termand liabilities in the long-run. It
certainlydid not provide for future economic autonomyor security. It is
for this reason, as ChristineOkali observed, that 'wives workingon new
and young farms were alwaysaware that they were not workingon joint
economic enterprises. They expected eventually to establish their own
separateeconomic concerns'."6The evidence suggeststhat this is precisely
whatmanydid after the initialestablishmentof cocoa in an area. As Austin
has suggested, women's ownershipof cocoa farms in Asante duringthe
firsttwo decades of this centurywas exceedinglyrare. After that point, it
becamefar more commonand was directlycorrelatedto the lengthof time
cocoa had been cultivated in a given area. By the third decade of this
century, in areas of Asante where cocoa was firmlyentrenched,women
began to establishtheir own cocoa farms- an option providingfar more
long-termeconomic securitythan labouringon a husband'smaturefarm.
And the independentestablishingof a cocoa farmwas only one in a series
of options that opened to women in areas where the cocoa economy was
fully in place. 'The growth of male cocoa income', accordingto Austin's
recent account, 'created economic opportunities for women in local
markets,both as producers(for example, of food crops and cooked food)
and as traders'*17
It is, I would argue, in this confusing period of transition in the
development of Asante's cocoa economy that we must locate the gender
chaos of the inter-waryears and the accompanyingexplosionof interestin
the welfare of women and children. It was duringthe 1920s, with cocoa
well-establishedin many parts of Asante, that women's role in the cocoa
economywas both changingand diversifying.Manywives were makingthe
move from being the most commonform of exploitablelabourduringthe
initialintroductionof cocoa to exploiting,themselves,the new openingsfor
economic autonomyand securitypresentedby the established,thQughstill
expanding,cocoa economy.Theirmovesareevidentnot justin the statistics
documentingthe increasingnumber of women cocoa-farmowners or in
descriptionsof the growingmarketin foodstuffs,but in the crisisin marriage
so well-documentedin customarycourt cases and in life histories.'8In this
transitionperiod, some women were quite preparedto divorce a husband
who refusedto set up a farmfor his wife. Othersturnedto customarycourts
to challenge matrilinealinheritance,demandingportionsof a divorcedor
deceasedhusband'scocoa farmin recognitionof labourinvested.Stillothers
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HistoryWorkshopJournal
sought to avoid marriagealtogetheror, at the very least, to insist on its
fluidityand the mutualityof conjugalobligations.19
All of these bits and pieces evidenceda gendercrisisin Asante, a contest
over the meaningsandmakingsof marriageandparenting.Theywere, more
than anything,about the strugglefor controlover women'sproductiveand
reproductivelabourin Asante - control at the very moment women were
beginningto negotiatetheir own spaceswithinthe colonialeconomy. That
this was a strugglearticulatedin a discourseof 'bad girls', of uncontrollability or of moral degeneration should come as no surprise. As Megan
Vaughanhas arguedin a broaderstudyof colonialismandAfricanillness,
'the problemof women'was shorthandfor a numberof relatedproblems
includingchanges in propertyrights, in rights in labour and relations
between generations....
The real issue, of course, was that with
far-reachingchanges taking place in economic relations, so enormous
strainswere placedon both genderand generationalrelations. .. these
complex changes were describedin terms of degeneration,of uncontrolledsexualityand of disease.20
But if women's economic alternativeswere easily represented as 'the
removal of constraintsupon their sexuality',as Roberts has argued, then
how could constraintsbe reasserted?21How could a new moral order be
constructedout of the crisis?Two developmentsin colonialpolicy, I would
argue, were key to the orderingprocess - indirectrule and maternaland
child-welfareinitiatives. Indirect rule had very specific implicationsfor
mediatinggenderconflict,shapinggenderedboundariesand reformulating
gender subordination. While it served the obvious ends of providing
administrationon the cheap and legitimating the colonial enterprise,
indirectrulealso facilitatedcolonizationof the domesticrealm- the worldof
marriage,divorce, adultery, childbirthand death. Asante chiefs, as the
arbitersof 'customarylaw', through executive order and throughnative
tribunals,were empoweredby indirectrule to manipulatemeaningsand
redefinerelationships.Indeed, one cannot help but be struckby the near
obsessionof Asante'schiefswithwomen'sroles, withwomen'ssexualityand
with women's challengesto existing definitionsof marriageand divorce,
particularlyafter the formal commencementof indirectrule restoredthe
Asante .ConfederacyCouncilin 1935.22Even at the local level, apartfrom
the centralized structuresof indirect rule, efforts were made to control
women'ssexualityin the face of this moralcrisis.For example, throughout
the late 1920sand early 1930s,a numberof Asante chiefsin outlyingtowns
andvillageslike Asokore, EffiduasiandMansoNkwanta,orderedthe arrest
of all women who were over the age of fifteen and not married.A woman
was detaineduntil she spoke the name of a man whom she would agree to
marryand the man in questionpaid a release fee and agreed to marrythe
woman.23This roundingup of 'spinsters'was a short-lived,but nonetheless
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MakingMothers
29
significantepisodein directinterventionin marriage- an institution,as Jane
Parpart has argued, so important in 'regulatingsexuality, procreation,
labour,andpropertyrights'.24
If indirectruleprovidedthe politicalframeworkin whichAsante'sgender
crisis would be addressed, then women's education, mothercraft and
maternaland child welfare efforts provided a social framework.And as
CarolSummersremindsus, 'socialprograms. .. were not mere sideshows
to the publicpolitics and the economicmaneuveringof imperialism.They
were integralto the holdingof power'.25Missionarieswere no less important
than chiefs in attempts to control 'uncontrollable'women, in efforts to
stabilizecolonialrule. Moreover,at times the connectionsbetweenthe two
- indirectrule chiefs and missionariesintent on making'proper'motherswere necessarilyintimate.TafoheneYaw Dabanka,collaboratorchiefpar
excellence, worked very closely with the British in efforts to implement
indirect rule in the Kumasi Division of Asante.26Although he did not
convertto Christianity,Dabankawas responsiblefor grantingthe Wesleyan
MissionarySociety the large parcelof land upon which the very firstgirls'
boarding school was built in Kumasi. In recognitionof his efforts, the
mission permittedup to six of his children(who numberedabout 105) to
attend without paying fees. Two of his daughterswere enrolled in the
boardingschool in the 1930s.27At this girls' school and at others, at child
welfare centres and weighing clinics, Europeans considered themselves
entitled, by their 'expertise'and in the name of their 'civilizingmission',to
enter directlythe privateworldof Asantes- the worldwhere childrenwere
born, the sick were healed, meals were cooked, babies were bathed,
marriageswere negotiatedanddeathswere mourned.It is to this encounter
thatwe now mustturn.
BabyShowsand BabyScales:NegotiatingColonialMotherhood
Like manyof the earliest,broad-basedeffortsto make'proper'mothersout
of existing mothersin colonial Africa, those initiatedin Kumasiwere put
forthin the nameof publichealth, in thiscase by Kumasi'sSanitationOffice
in 1925. It was in that year that the firstHealth Week was organizedby Dr
Selwyn-Clarkewho was then the Senior Sanitary Officer in Kumasi.
Activities included neighborhood clean-ups, the inspection of pupils'
personalhygiene, exhibits and an essay contest. But the biggestevent, by
far, was the Baby Show. Selwyn-Clarkehad hopedthattwo hundredbabies
would be entered, but 'as many as five hundredwere broughtto the Baby
Show'. In the followingyear, Selwyn-Clarkedecidedto refuseadmissionto
babies whose names had not been entered in the Register of Births. The
result was a nearly threefold increase in the numberof births registered
between SeptemberandOctober, 1926.28By 1929,the BabyShowhadbeen
transformedcompletelyinto a mechanismof social regulation,if not social
control, as women were encouragedand then rewardedfor entering the
world of colonial motherhood.The Baby Show was open only to children
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who had regularlyattended the newly-openedWelfareCentre and whose
births had been registered. In the judging of the baby contestants,extra
pointswere given to childrenwho had receivedvaccinations.
If these firstbiomedicaland voluntaryeffortsto reconstructmotherhood
in Asante fell underthe generalrubricof publichealth, subsequentefforts
aimed at mothersin the late 1920sand early 1930swere increasinglysocial
and challenged the boundary between private and public. Like the
initiativesrecommendedby the 1931 Geneva Conference,they sought to
addressspecificmedicalandenvironmentalproblemswith a ratherambiguous, yet nonetheless invasive, discourseon mothercraftand hygiene. In
other words, from effortsencouraginga mother,via a Baby Show, to have
her child vaccinatedcame unannouncedvisits to women's homes where
recommendationsconcerninghygieneandinfantfeedingwere administered
to a captiveaudience.
The springboardfor this effort was the KumasiChild Welfare Centre,
which began operationsin its permanentquartersin September, 1928. In
manywaysthe Centre'sopeningmarkedthe beginningof a formalmaternal
and infant welfare scheme in Asante. Though funded primarilyby the
government,the Centrereliedheavilyon supportingservicesfrommissions
Its presencemeantthat antenatalcare could
and voluntaryorganizations.29
now be co-ordinatedwith postnatalcare, weighing-inclinics, domiciliary
visits, and instructionalsessionsin mothercraft.Government,missionand
othervoluntaryeffortscouldbe more closelyintegrated.
When the Centre opened its (temporary)doors in 1927, its primary
objectiveswere to provideantenatalcare to expectantmothersand to offer
postnatal,well-babycare, to infants.Its mainagenda,then, was preventive
treatment,not care of the sick. In additionto its regularclinics,the Centre
held weighingclinicsto whichmotherswere supposedto bringtheirinfants
on a monthlybasisin orderto assessthe child'sdevelopment.It also helped
to co-ordinatethe house-to-housevisitationsconductedby the Gold Coast
Maternityand ChildWelfareLeague after its foundingin 1927. It was not
equipped, however, to provide services to parturientmothers or those
immediatelypostpartum.(The African Hospital in Kumasiwas similarly
ill-equipped,thoughit did handleemergencycases requiringsurgery.)30In
its first full year of operation, according to the 'Report on Ashanti',
attendanceat the Centrewas 24,019 and the successof its workwas 'due to
the great confidence and trust which the Ashanti mother reposes in the
Women MedicalOfficers'.In additionto runningthe Centre'sclinics, the
medicalofficersalso visited neighbouringvillages, 'inspected617 children
andgave simpleadviceto the motherson hygiene'.31By 1930-31,therewere
30,897visitsby childrento the clinicand 12,070visitsby expectantmothers.
'At times', wrote the WomanMedicalOfficer,'it has been difficultto cope
with the numberof women attendingthis clinic, but the chargeof a small
medicinefee has reducedthe numbers.'32
But how do we makesense of those numbers?Whatdo they tell us about
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MakingMothers
31
the ways in which women, especiallyin Kumasi,negotiatedthe terrainof
mother-makingin the 1920sand 1930s, aimed as it was towardaddressing
not only a host of biomedicaland environmentalproblems, but women's
'uncontrollability'? Though no archive of minutes and reports exists to
provide a direct answerto this question, the oral reminiscencesof Asante
women, as well as the recordedconcernsandfrustrationsof colonialofficials
regardingwomen'sreceptionof these schemes, have muchto tell us about
those numbers.33They suggestthat Asante mothersrespondedin a variety
of ways. Some became enthusiasticparticipantsin the schemes. They
attendedantenatalclinicsat the WelfareCentre,had theirbabiesdelivered
by one of the two registeredmidwivesin Kumasiand broughttheirchildren
to the weighing clinics on a regular basis. These women lived almost
exclusivelywithinKumasi,Asante'slargesturbancentre.Theytendedto be
active in missionchurchesand were also more likely than women who did
not frequent the Centre to have a husband who worked in an occupation
closely linked to the requirementsof the expandingcolonial economy- as
driver,typist, store clerk or mason. In a matrilinealsociety in whichit was
not uncommonto stay with your matrikinafter marriage,they were more
likely to sharea residencewith theirhusbands.34
At the other extremewere the women aboutwhomwe knowvery littlethe ones who by choice or becauseof lack of fundsfor traveland medicine,
avoided the Centre, the League, the missionsand the Red Cross entirely.
The governmentlamentedon occasion, the 'largenumbersof women who
continuedto rely on the unqualifiedwoman'ratherthanthe registeredmidwife.35Indeed, that continuedreliancemight explainthe ratherinsubstantial MidwivesOrdinanceof 1931.The ordinancedid not restrictthe practice
of midwiferyto 'properlyqualified'midwives,as was the case in Ugandaand
other Britishcolonies. Insteadit providedfor the enrollmentof local midwives on a 'List of UnqualifiedMidwivesif they had been engaged in the
practiceof midwiferyfor a periodof not less thantwo years . .. [andwere]
36 The governmentjustifiedthe limitednatureof the ordof good character'.
inanceby claimingthat 'thereis not as yet so greata confidencein scientific
methodsof obstetrics. .. andif thereweresuchconfidencetherewill not be
for some time a sufficientlylarge numberof properlytrainedmidwivesto
meet the public demands'.37One has to do very little readingbetween the
lines to glean from this statement that the majorityof women preferred
beingattendedby localmidwives.Thus,the coloniallegislationsignifiedthe
government'sinability to fully regulate, much less redefine, midwifery
whichremained,for the time being, in the handsof local practitioners.
But between these two extremes of women's full participationor of
complete avoidance, most women negotiated their way throughmaternal
decisions and colonial encounters on a daily basis, participatingat one
momentand avoidingat another.As one Kumasiresidentrecentlyrecalled
of the birthsof her threechildren,'SometimesI wouldtake some herbsand
sometimesI wouldgo to the hospital'.38And those who didparticipatein the
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variousinfantand maternalwelfareschemesdid so on termsthat were not
simply dictated by the colonial agent. Many, by the way they chose to
participate and by the way they structured the encounter, sought to
transformthe makingof colonialmotherhoodinto somethingelse entirely.
The very statistics gathered by the Gold Coast government provide
evidence of this process. Kumasi'sChild Welfare Centre was set up to
provideantenatalcareandwell-childcare, butin its firstdecadeof operation
the officers-in-chargefound it virtuallyimpossibleto limit its function to
welfareissues. Withno hospitalavailableto cope with high-riskdeliveries,
the Centrefound itself deliveringbabieseven thoughit had no facilities.In
1936, eighty-fourwomen deliveredtheir babies at the Centre;in 1937, 109
delivered there. Indeed, in the first full annualreport on the Centre, the
MedicalOfficerrevealedthatthe facilitywas, in fact, focussingon curative,
not preventive medicine, 'As the Clinic becomes better known to the
Ashantis the difficultyof confiningthe activitiesof the Centre to welfare
work becomes greater'.Most telling, perhaps,were the Officer'sremarks
concerningthe activitiesof the child welfare clinic. 'Nearlyevery child is
sufferingfrom some definitedisease', she reported, and of the more than
10,000new childrenseen by the clinic,only nine percentcamefor well-child
care, that is, 'for inspection and advice'.39If the Kumasi Child Welfare
Centrewas envisionedas the site for the makingof colonialmothers,many
of the Asante motherswho visitedappearedto have a very differentvision.
In those early years, they succeeded in transformingthe very locus of
maternaland infant welfare schemes in Asante into what they did want affordable,curativehealthcare alternativesin a rapidlychangingand often
confusing colonial urban environment. And in their quest to transform
colonial initiatives, Asante women did not always encounter opposition
from those nurses,medicalofficersand volunteerswho had been entrusted
with the task of colonizingthe maternalin Asante.
Thatthe womenmedicalofficershadcollaborated,wittinglyor not, in the
process of transformationwas one of the chargesmade by the Directorof
Gold Coast Medical Services in a 1942 report. According to J.B. Kirk,
'so-calledwelfare clinics have been allowed to degenerateinto treatment
clinicsandeducativeandwelfareworkhasbeen completelyswampedby the
huge wave of sufferingchildhoodwhichhas inundatedthem'. The Kumasi
Centre,he wrote, 'is beingused as a combinedmaternityandsickchildren's
hospital'.He blamedthisstateof affairslargelyon the medicalofficers,their
failureto providedirectionandtheir'desireto ensurethe popularityof these
clinicsso far as it may be expressedin the numberof attendancesyear by
year'. While Kirkalso blamedthe 'absenceof adequatehospitalaccommodation' and the 'low standardof living of those who are most in need of
instruction and guidance', he believed that the centres, given proper
management, could have fulfilled their original purpose. He used the
weighingclinicsas an exampleof how the teeth hadbeen takenout of infant
welfaremeasures:
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33
In Europe the weighing centre is generally the place where demonstrationsin the care and managementof infantsare conducted,cookery
lessons given, dress-makingclassesorganisedand the generalwelfareof
childrenimpressedupon all who attend there for these purposes.Here
the weighing centre appears to be merely a weighing centre and the
mothershaveto be continuallypesteredto bringtheirchildrenthereto be
weighed.
But if the women who workedon a daily basis at the KumasiCentre- the
nurses, medical officers and volunteers- were willing to collaborate in
transforminga maternaland infantwelfare centre into a curativemedical
clinicby abandoninghygienelecturesandmothercrafttalksfor treatmentof
yaws or placenta previa, Kirk was not. 'If the motherswill not bring the
babiesregularlyto the weighingmachine',he wrote, 'the weighingmachine
must be broughtto the house'. Moreover,he continued, 'whilethe visit is
being made those featuresof the home life of the child whichmay militate
against its welfare should be noted and the mother's attention drawnto
them'. But even Kirk, in some ways, appreciated the not-so-subtle
contradictionsin what he advocated, suggesting at one point that the
'welfareof childrenshouldlogicallyawaitthe establishmentof the general
measuresaffectingthe whole community'.
Kirk'sreportis significantnot only in that it points to the contradictions
andbankruptcyof colonialsocialwelfareschemes,butin the lightit shedson
the encounterbetweenAsante motherandmaternalimperialist.It suggests
that that encounter was shaped as much, if not more, by the actions of
Asante women as by an internationaldiscourseon maternaland childwelfare. Asante mothers, for the most part, exhibitedprofounddisinterestin
the mothercraftagenda with which the KumasiCentre began operations.
Theywere not ambivalent,however,concerningtheiraccessto medicalcare
alternatives.Using the pressureof their numbersat the health care clinics
and the absence of their numbers at weighing clinics and mothercraft
lectures, they fundamentallytransformedthe agenda of the Centre and
there is little evidence to suggest that those who staffed the Centreson a
dailybasis offered any effective oppositionto the transformation.That the
Directorof Gold CoastMedicalServicesessentiallycalledfor the abandonment of socialwelfareinitiativesby WelfareCentresevidencedthe strength
with whichAsante mothersdailynegotiatedthe terrainof colonialmotherhood. Having observed this strength(though he preferredto cast it as a
'wave of sufferingchildhood'), Kirk concludedin 1942 that the colonial
governmentmust change the field of battle, take the strugglefor 'motherhood' rightinto Asante homes. Wouldcolonizationof the maternalfareany
betterthere?To answerthatquestion,let us turnto the Women'sWorksection of the MethodistMissionwhichbeganactiveworkin Asante in the late
1920s.Its programmefocussednot just on remakingmothersthroughhome
visits, but on educatingyoung girls in the science of mothercraftand then
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sendingthose girlsbackinto the villages.Theretheycouldinstructtheirown
mothersin the finerpointsof motherhood.
Pancakesand Wash Basins, Bibles and Needlepoint:Making Mothers Is
Woman'sWork
The introductionof Methodistwomen missionariesto Asante in the late
1920s was portrayedby the mission and by the colonial governmentas
nothing less than a gender-specificresponse to the moral crisis born of
colonial rule. As ReverendE.W. Thompsonwrote in the Woman'sWork
magazineof the mission:
In formertimes, which, after all, is no fartheroff than yesterday,some
sort of sexual morality was upheld and enforced by barbarousordeals....
But with the introduction of a humane and civilised code of
laws, ancient sanctions and restraintshave been removed without a
higher sanction of equal potency taking their place. Young men and
women formed irregularconnectionsand thought little of sin because
physicalfear had been abolished.
Thompsonbelieved that the only way to counter this moral crisis was for
women missionariesto 'introduceand make real the Christianideal of
marriageand the family'.Motherhood,of course, was centralto that ideal
andkey to the civilizingmission.'Slowly- all too slowly',F. DeavilleWalker
wrote,
If Africanhomesareto be trulyChristianhomes, if Africanwomenareto
become trulyChristian,they musthave womenmissionarieswho can be
amongthem as womenamongwomenandteachthemaboutthe intimate
thingsof a woman'slife in a way thatno mancan possiblydo.40
In short, makingcolonialmotherswas woman'swork.
While the government'smaternaland infant welfare efforts in Kumasi
focussed mainly on reconstructingcontemporarymotherhood,the Methodist mission'sfirstgoal in Kumasiandin Asante generallywas to shapethe
mothers of tomorrowthrougheducationalinitiatives. Early in 1927, the
mission's district chair, Harry Webster, wrote to Governor Guggisberg
about the Methodist plans for a boarding school in Kumasi. 'It is our
intention',he wrote, 'to place the emphasison domesticand home training
subjects - native cooking, laundry work, needle work and gardening'.
Whetherbecauseof the severityof the 'moralcrisis'in Asante or becauseof
Asante'srelativelyrecentexperiencewithEuropeanmissions,the Methodistsviewededucationfor Asantewomenas requiringa differentagendathan
the one utilized in the mission'scoastal schools. 'There is no thought of
training the girls for English Examination',wrote Webster, 'such as is
attemptedat Accraand Cape Coast'.4'
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In 1928, for the firsttime in the historyof the MethodistMissionin the
Gold Coast, a meeting of women missionarieswas held. It coincidedwith
the beginningsof constructionon the Kumasischool. Knownas Mmofraturo
(literally, the children'sgarden), the school was modelled on an African
village, though 'not necessarilyan African village as it is', a 1928 report
added, 'but an Africanvillage as it mightbe underideal conditions.Small
houses are groupedaroundthe Kindergartenblock, whichis approximately
the size of a village school'.42 In 1930 Mmofraturoopened its doors, with
Sister Persis Beer in charge. In the following year, a trainingcollege for
women was added to Mmofraturo'sprogramme,with women takingsome
courses at neighbouringWesley College. From its inception, the school
sought to mould proper Christian women and mothers through daily
routine.The originalcampusconsistedof threesmallhousescontainingtwo
bedrooms and a dining room. One bedroom was for the trainingcollege
students and the other was for the children. They were to interact as a
family, eating together and dividing specific chores, with the training
studentsservingas 'mothers'to the pupils.43While this type of 'home life'
education, as Nancy Hunt has called it, was quite common throughout
Africa, Mmofraturoseems to have put an unusualtwist on the model.44
Fromthe very beginning,while stressingdomesticityand Christianmotherhood, it also emphasizedself-activityandempowermentin waysthatappear
almost inimical to the broader domestic agenda. For example, in 1931,
PersisBeer reportedthateveryweek studentsandstaff'meetin a "Mother's
Council" to discuss matters affecting the training of the children and
anything that concerns our common welfare'.45By 1934 the Mother's
Council had simply become the 'MbofraturoCouncil' and Beer was
reportingthat 'the aimsof self-governmentandthe freedomwhichcomesof
servicecontinueto be carriedout in the children'sdemocraticassembly,the
MbofraturoCouncil,and in the whole life of the school'.46
Mmofraturo'sratheruniquecombinationof participatorydemocracyand
domestic training was, in part, a reflection of Persis Beer's missionary
feminism,if we can call it that. Beer, duringher nearlytwentyyearsin the
Gold Coast, spenta good deal of time negotiatingher own autonomywithin
the MethodistMission movementin the colony. While her philosophyof
education and of women's emancipation was not unproblematic,unburdenedby racism nor free of the contradictionsthat riddled maternal
imperialism,it did representa fairlysuccessfuland long-termchallengeto
the prevailingmissionarydiscourse on domesticity. In a 1933 article in
Woman'sWork, Beer attacked the second-classstatus of women in the
church, the 'assumptionof women's inferiority[which]results in lack of
opportunityfor girls and women' and the assumptionsof male teachers
concerningfemale studentsin the higherstandards.'Nearlyall the teachers
are men', she wrote, 'and most of them assumethat girls are intellectually
inferior'.47
PersisBeer's personalapproachto educationgoes some distancetoward
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explaining Mmofraturo'sparticularbrand of democratic/domesticeducation. It cannot, however, tell the whole story. Asantes were active
participants in the making of their colonial world and Mmofraturo,
democraticassemblyand all, was as mucha productof the dailyrealitiesof
life in Asante as it wasof the ambiguousmissionaryfeminismof PersisBeer.
Indeed, Beer's ability to negotiate the missionaryterrain of domestic
educationwas largelya resultof her belief that 'in familymatters,[Asante]
women have power'.48How to extend that customaryinfluenceinto the
churchand into educationwas Beer's startingpoint, and, in largepart, the
MmofraturoCouncil and the school's combined agenda of participatory
democracyanddomestictrainingcan be seen as her effortsto reproducethe
domesticpowerof Asante womenin the missionschool context. It is in this
rathercomplexwaythatdomesticityandAsante women'spowermingledin
seeming harmonyat Mmofraturo.It was in this way that the children's
gardenbecame a negotiatedsettlement,not just between SisterPersisand
her mission'sleaders,but amongher studentsandpupils,theirmothersand
theirfathersand Asante'schiefs. Granted,most Asante girlsdid not attend
schools during this period. Nonetheless, places like Mmofraturo are
importantas microcosmsof the colonialencounter;they didnot simplydrop
from the sky, prefabricatedcolonial institutions.They embodied, in many
ways, the verystruggleover how Asante'scolonialmotherswereto be made
- a dailystrugglewhose outcomeswere neverpredictable.
Two brieflife storieslend some insightinto the variousandcomplexways
Asante women encounteredthis contested process as school girls. Mary
Anokye, one of the youngerdaughtersof TafoheneDabanka,was enrolled
in Mmofraturo'sfirstclass. 'I wasone of the pioneers',she recalls,andby all
evidenceMmofraturoprofoundlyaffectedherlife'scourse.PersisBeer 'saw
to her marriage',or moreliterally,'stoodat herback'(ogyinan'akyi)for the
ceremony. She was marriedin the churchto a young catechistand spent
most of her adult life travellingwith him from mission school to mission
school. She and her husbandhad two children,deliveredby a registered
midwifein Kumasi,and alwayslived together. MaryAnokye workedas a
seamstressin her home - a skill she acquiredat Mmofraturo- andreliedon
none of her matrikin,maleor female, in the raisingof herchildren.Her first
childis namedPersis.49
MaryAnokye's life seems to suggestthat an early missionaryeducation
profoundlyshapedthe next generationof Asantemothers- creatinga group
of youngwomen who lived with theirhusbandsin monogamousmarriages,
who remainedin the home duringthe day (ratherthangoingout to tradeor
to farm) and who did not share childcareresponsibilitieswith others.50
However, Ama Dapah's story suggests a very different outcome. Ama
attendedthe smallMethodistschoolin Tafo, not farfromMmofraturo,and
reached about the same stage as MaryAnokye before leaving. Her father
was a servant(ahenkwaa)in Kumasito the Asantehene(kingof Asante) and
Ama lived with her mother, a farmer, in the matrilinealfamily house in
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37
Tafo. At about the age of twelve, Ama was taken out of school by her
mother because her motherbelieved that 'if you kept going to school you
would be unable to have children'.Ama eventuallyhad her firstchild, but
did not marrythe father.Nor did she marry,accordingto Asante customor
by colonial ordinance, the fathers of her other twelve children. She
explainedthat 'in those days, the womenwere trustedby theirhusbands,so
whenhe took you, he woulddecidenot to do the ritesbecausehe trustedyou
not to go to any other man apartfromhim'. Ama claimsthat she preferred
this arrangementbecause of the flexibilityit gave her: 'if you kickedme, I
would just leave you! That's it....
If they weren't any good, I just left'.
Ama Dapah supportedher children, includingpaying their school fees,
throughher work as a trader.She alwayslived in her familyhouse and her
motherlooked afterthe childrenwhenshe wasout. She neverlivedwithany
of her 'husbands'.51
The point of recappingthese two stories is not to draw conclusions
concerning which was a more typical outcome of missionary mothermaking.Neither woman was more or less 'colonized'than the other; each
simplynegotiatedthe colonialmapin a differentway. Theirstoriesillustrate
how impossibleit is to speak of a 'missionaryimpact'when the 'mission'
itself constitutedcontestedterrainandwhen so manyfactorsexternalto the
school itself came to bear on the making of Asante's first generationof
colonized mothers.For example, in both cases here the class and statusof
the father(particularlyas relativeto thatof the mother)playeda significant
role in mediatingthe woman'sencounterwith missioneducation.In short,
while futuremotherswere certainlybeing made at Mmofraturoand other
girls'schools duringthis period, it was not alwaysin the way advocatesof
girls'educationand mothercrafttraininghad intended.
While the MethodistWoman'sWork that went into educationdid not
alwaysresultin the intendedharvest,there were other effortsnot bounded
by the wallsof the school. Fromthe very beginning,an importantaspectof
girls' education entailed outreach programmesaimed at the mothers of
tomorrow'smothers. From Mmofraturo'sfirst year, its studentsand staff
went out to nearbyvillages on weekends. At firstthese visits were rather
informal,cast as effortsat 'makingfriends'withvillagewomen.52
By 1934, these friendlyvisitswere far more organizedand had gained a
specific maternaland infant welfare agenda. 'With added zest due to an
increasedinterest in Red Cross work', reported Beer, the studentswere
visiting the neighboringtown of Tafo and bathing babies.53Beer's 1934
reportdetailedthe extensivenatureof the students'villagework:
On Sundaysthey visit Christianandheathenwomenin theircompounds,
teach classesof women and childrenand sometimesdo dispensarywork.
During the week the students go to Tafo. The second year do Infant
Welfareworkandhold a playhourfor childrenup to eightor nineyearsof
age. To this enjoyablehouronly well-bathedchildrenare admitted!The
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third year students also go to Tafo each week, and have worked with
some of the women in the compounds, teaching them clean ways of
cooking, helping them to clean kitchens and compounds and giving
health talks, and trying to arouse their interest in improving their
homes.54
In many ways, outreach programmessuch as these constitutedthe most
intimateof Asante women's encounterswith colonialism.Their daughters
became targets of and agents in the colonization of the maternalin an
ambiguousprocessof indirectsocialreconstruction.But did the intimacyof
thisparticularcolonialencounterrenderschooloutreachprogrammesmore
successful than, for example, welfare clinics in creating an uncontested
colonized motherhood? Let us look briefly at the encounter from the
perspectiveof the motherwhose babywas beingbathed.
In 1992and 1993I spoke to manywomen in the townsof Tafo, Effiduasi
and Asokore who had direct experienceof these outreachprogrammesin
the 1930s. The majority of them had had their babies bathed by the
Methodist outreach groups and all described very similar scenes. They
recalled the missionariesarrivingin town with a group of their students.
Often the groupwas equippedwith soap, sponges, powderand basinsand,
at times, they brought bandages and clothes made by the students and
medicines for various skin ailments. Sometimes the group's arrivalwas
formallyannouncedby the chief throughthe beating of a gong-gong,but
more often it was informallyannouncedby the womenthemselvessinginga
welcoming song to the missionariesas they went to fetch water for the
baths.55As Yaa Pokuaarecalled, 'Whenthey came, they asked us to bring
themthe childrenso theycouldshowus how to bathethem. We took themto
the outsideof the house. There, they showedus how to bathethemwell and
then powderthem. They advisedus to do thateverydaywhen we got up'.56
But how did Asante women perceive this encounter- as a welcomed
instructionalsession or as a coercive intrusioninto their privateworlds?I
expected to hear one or the other of these responseswhen I asked women
whatthey thoughtof the bathingsessions.I heardneither.Whenaskedwhat
they thought of this bathing of their babies, virtually every woman
respondedquitesimplythatit wasgood. WhenI askedif it wasgood because
it changedor improvedthe waysthatwomenwashedtheirbabies,only a few
could point to any differencesat all. Mary Oduro suggestedthat the only
differenceswere thatthe missionariesused a basinto bathethe childrenand
thatthey powderedthem whenfinished:'Theytold us to use a basinandnot
to bathe them like we were doing - just pouring water over them'.57
However, most could think of no difference and responded like Efuah
Nsuahwho said, 'No, it did not changeanything'.58
Only afterencountering
severalresponseslike EfuahNsuah's,didI beginto realizethattherewasno
contradictionin the reminiscences,that the sessionscould be perceived,at
once, as non-coercive,non-instructionalandyet somehow'good'.For many
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39
women, the bathing sessions were simply a means of gaining access to
variousimporteditems, includingpowder and medicatedskin ointments.
Rose Afrakomaremembersthe encounteras follows:
RA: We would line up under a tree with our children.Those who had
sores, they wouldtreatthem. They wouldbathethe childrenandpowder
them.
JA: You didn'tconsiderthatto be interferingin yourbusiness?
RA: .
.
. No, it was good because some of the children had these sores
called 'doee' [yaws].
JA:
..
. I would find it rather strange if people from another country
came to my house and said they were going to teach me how to bathe my
children!
RA: Well, it didn'tbotherus. Theywere teachingus something.
JA: Did the things that they taught you change the way in which you
caredfor yourchildren?
RA: It didn'tchangeat all.
JA: Then why was it good?
RA: Because they were helpingus. We were gettingpowderfree and all
of that!
JA: So, it didn'tchangeanything?
RA: No, nothing.59
Adwoa Mansah recalls receiving clothes for her babies, in addition to
medicineand powders.0 But many women seemed to have no underlying
agenda for attending the sessions; nor did they perceive any particular
culturalsignificancein these babybaths.
When asked why she thought the missionarieswanted to bathe the
children, Ama Dapah simply replied, 'They were dirty'! She did not
considerthe bath to be an intrusion.'We were not bothered [by it]', she
recalled,'becausethe childrencouldbe dirty,so theyjust came to help us'.61
This perceptionof the session as a culturallyunclutteredbit of assistanceto
busy mothers was not uncommon. After having been asked if the
missionariesand students knew anythingabout bathingchildrenthat the
mothersdid not, Akua Kankromareplied, 'We were doingit ourselves,but
when they came they would ask if they could do it, so we just said yes'.62
Indeed, some women found the whole spectacleratheramusing- a bit of
entertainmentto break the routine of daily life. When Adwoa Tana was
asked why she thoughtthe bathingsessions were good, she repliedwith a
hearty chuckle, 'It is good to have a white woman bathingyour children
....
You are just lucky to have whites who are bathing your children for
you!'63While Adwoa Tana obviouslyimputedsome culturalsignificanceto
the bathingsessions,it was not the significanceintended.She was strucknot
by the instructionshe hadreceivedin mothercraft,but by the ironyof having
someone from among the colonizersbathingthe babies of the colonized.
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And as Adwoa Nsiah recalled, once the maternalcolonizerswent on their
way, they left little in their wake: 'It was whites who came to bathe the
children,so it was good. But, as for my child, I bathedher myself!I bathed
my children before they came. I bathed my children after they came!'"
Indeed, some women recallonly attendingout of courtesy.As Afua Manu
explained,'whensomeone comes to tell you something,you definitelyhave
to listen to them. You have to honour the invitation,even if you already
knowwhatthey are saying'.65
The reminiscencesof women whose babies were objects in bathing
demonstrationspoint to a fascinating, textured colonial encounter that
defies simple categorization.It was neitherone of coercion and resistance
nor one of impartingand receivinginstruction.It was a social occasion, at
times even festive, that broughtdaughtersto villages to instructmothers
throughthe medium of missionaryoutreach. Though the students came
bearingsome of the culturalbaggageof theirteachers,thatbaggagewas not
as heavilypackedas manymightassume.It did not dominatethe encounter;
it did not structurethat encounterin incontestableways. As MaryAnokye,
who was a studentat Mmofraturo,recalledof those bathingsessions, 'We
didn't teach things that would contradict customs.
. .
. They always received
the messagehappily.But I couldn'ttell if they turneddeaf earsto it whenwe
returned back home'.' Anokye understoodthat Asante women participated in mothercraftexercises largely on their own terms. They did not
come because they wanted to learn a 'better'way. They came because it
facilitatedaccessto powderor to babyclothesmade fromimportedcottons
or to medicine.They camebecauseit was somethingto do, an expressionof
courtesy,a bit of entertainmenton a Saturdayafternoon.
Thisis not to suggestthatthe bathingencounterwaswhollywithoutsocial
meaning, but to argue that its meaningswere many and contested. For
example, recollectionsof how the boundarybetween privateand publicin
Asante fared during these bathing sessions provide strikingevidence of
multiple and embattleddefinitions.In recent reminiscences,most Asante
women, like Rose Afrakoma, recalled bringingtheir childrenout of the
house and into publicspace in orderto take partin the bathingfestivities.67
In contrast, much of the correspondence of the Methodist Women's
Departmentdescribeswomen missionariesenteringthe homes of Asante
women in order to bathe their babies. These conflictingaccountsare not
about truthand falsehood;nor are they necessarilyabout what constitutes
the 'inside' of a house and what constitutes'outside'. They are about the
very meaningof the colonial encounter.In the first, the colonized mother
leaves her private space and makes the decision to participatein the
encounter on her own terms. In the second version, the colonizer,
empoweredby the state, by Christianityand by domesticscience expertise
enters on her own terms the privatesphere of Asante women. In the first
version, the boundarybetween private and public is not violated; in the
second it is. In Tafo, Effiduasiand in a host of other towns throughout
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41
Asante, missionaries, mothers and student-daughterscrossed and recrossed, mappedand remappedthis boundaryof contestedcolonialterrain
while they engaged in a dialogue of basins, bathwater, powder and
bandages.Motherhoodwas certainlyinvented throughthis process, but it
was scarcelythe ideal Christianmotherhoodof PersisBeer's dreams.
Nor was that ideal realizedthroughthe MethodistWomen'sFellowship
groupswhich spreadthroughoutAsante in the late 1930sand early 1940s.
These groupswere spearheadedby the firstevangelicalwomenmissionaries
sent to the area - women who often delivered elaborate sermons on
motherhood and Christian values. Heavily laden with the imperialist
discourse of proper motherhood, these lectures were far more about
Western nuclear-familyvalues and parentalresponsibilitythan they were
about bath powderor basins.The lecturesdeliveredby Irene Masonin the
mid-1930s were not atypical. Mason, according to her notes, always
highlightedthe importanceandresponsibilitiesof motherhood,the need for
fathers to take an active role in disciplining their children and the
'importanceof unity in the home', for trainingand properdiscipline.The
only way this unity could be attained, Mason warned her listeners, was
throughthe 'marriagesof two people who love one anotherand choose one
another in the sight of God and who are preparedto build up together a
home accordingto the lawsof Christ'.68
Yet Asante women who were active participantsin these Fellowship
groups in the 1930s and 1940s tend to recall missionariesnot for their
spiritualguidance but for very specific, mundanereasons. For example,
Kathleen White arrived in Asante in 1941 as an evangelical missionary
whose programmeincludedthe settingup of Fellowshipgroups.From the
beginning,she saw the groupsas forumsfor reconstructingmotherhood.In
one of her firstreportsbackto Londonshe wrote:
I used this initialvisit to talk to the women on cleanlinessin their homes
and in most of the villages I bathed babies and washed sores .
.
. in the
villagesone is facedwithilliteracyandall the thingswhichgo withit, such
as dirty homes, sickness amongst the children, lack of desire and
initiative.69
Severalmonthslater Whitewas bringingunmarriedyoungwomen into her
home for weeks at a stretchin orderto 'teachthema few rulesof cleanliness,
and also to learnto read, sew, cook and such things'.She referredto these
women as her 'family'and closed one letterwith this apology:
Please excuse more news now, but my familyis needing attention.I am
going to talk to them aboutthe care of theirbabiesand try to show them
how to feed them. If only they could realise that if they began to train
their babies from birthit would be much easier for their childrenwhen
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they grew up. Half the troublein Africa is the absolutelack of physical
control.70
White's message was a strong one, certainly far more burdened with
maternalracism(for lack of a better term) than PersisBeer's and with far
less roomfor negotiation.Yet Whiteis fondlyremembered,butnot so much
for her message on Christianmotherhood. When Victoria Adjaye was
recentlyasked what kind of work the women missionarieslike White were
doingin the early1940s,she replied,'Theytaughtus how to makepancakes,
but I knew how already....
They taught us how to give a sick person food
to eat whens/he hasno appetite'.7"Mostof the womenin Effiduasi,the town
in whichWhite eventuallybased herself, echoed similarmemoriesof food
preparation:'Whitetaughtus how to cook - semolina,biscuit,pancake'.72
Othersrecalldetailedlessonson makingsoup.73
ThoughWhitecame on a 'civilizing'missionas burdenedas any couldbe
with European notions of godliness, cleanliness and discipline, it was a
missionwith which Asante women interactedlargelyon their own terms,
much as they did with welfare clinics and outreach programmes.Their
encounterwithWomen'sWorkmissionarieslike Whitewas mediatednot so
much by Bibles and hymns as by the practical,if not the mundane- by
pancakes,biscuitsandstews. In these ways, throughdailychoices,by taking
some and leaving the rest, Asante women actively shaped their colonial
world.By 1948thatworldwaschangingquickly.PersisBeer hadreturnedto
England.KathleenWhite'smissionhad been given a permanenthome with
the constructionof the women's trainingcentre at Kwadaso- a centre
designedto provideinstructionto ruralwomen in infantwelfare, hygiene,
religion, and morality,as well as in readingand simple arithmetic.Yet for
White'sand Beer's successors,the makingof colonial mothersremaineda
difficultbattle. As Gwen Ash reportedof a 1948 group that attended the
centre:'Theydon't seem as keen on childwelfare. .. but are tremendously
Woman'swork, it seems, was neverdone.
keen on the reading'.74
Final Thoughts on Colonizing the Maternal
What then was making mothers all about in colonial Asante? When put into
action, did the rhetoricof the Geneva conferenceof 1931 come down to
baby shows and baby baths?Was the gender chaos of the expandingcash
economy addressedwith pancakesand needlework?In a recent articleon
domesticityand hegemony, Jean and John Comaroffwrite that this was
preciselywhatcolonialismwas all about, that 'colonization. . . entailedthe
reconstructionof the ordinary,of thingsat once material,meaningful,and
mundane'.75
Certainly,in Asante, colonizationof the maternaldid not take
place, at least with any success, on the level of mothercraftlectures or
throughweighingclinicslike the one in Kumasi.Rather,it occurredthrough
the mediumof ordinaryobjects and daily routines,throughbathingbasins
andbiscuits.And thatit took place on thatlevel, thatit was mediatedby the
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43
mundane,tells us much about the encounterbetween Asante women and
Britishcolonialism.
Although the Comaroffs further suggest that the 'seeds of cultural
imperialismwere most effectively sown along the contours of everyday
life',76Asante women'sencounterswith Britishcolonialismraiseimportant
questions of control and of agency in this imperialistenterprise. They
suggestnot only thattherewerefew otherplacesto sow those seeds, but that
Asante womenin largepartdeterminedhow andwherethey couldbe sown.
In other words, for maternal colonizers to sow the seeds of cultural
imperialismin the 'contoursof dailylife' wasto sow in groundover which,in
Asante anyway,they had little controland to whichthey had only sporadic
access. To extendthe metaphorone step further,they were sowingseeds in
groundthey did not own, in a climatethey couldnot predictandat intervals
they did not determine. What eventually took root and thrived in that
groundwas somethingbarelyrecognizableas imperialism'sown.
Certainlymotherhoodwas reconstructedin Asante. The maternalwas
colonized. But the processwas not a linearone, determinedby one actor.
Asante womenwere activeagentsin shapingthatprocess,in negotiatingthe
termsof theirown participationin the colonialencounter.More often than
not, they chose to participatethroughthe mediumof babycontests, basins
and pancakes and NOT through the medium of mothercraftlectures or
social welfare projects- those non-negotiableand non-negotiatinginitiatives that demanded the complete reconstructionof the private domain.
That the Kumasi welfare clinic, that Persis Beer, that Kathleen White
agreed, wittinglyor not, to these terms of participationwas an acknowledgement of Asante women's power and autonomy, as well as a silent
admissionof the shallownessof colonialism's'civilizing'mission. Government agents, missionaries,medical officers and teachers set out to make
mothersin colonialAsante, but in the end they couldnot makethemjust as
they pleased. They did not, to recall a celebratedobservation,make them
'under circumstanceschosen by themselves, but under circumstances
directlyencountered, given and transmittedfrom the past' and on terms
largelydefinedby Asante womenthemselves.77
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GUIDE TO REFERENCESAND ABBREVIATIONS
All interviewscited hereinwere recordedby the authorand are currentlyin her possession.
Citationsbelow contain the name of the individualinterviewedand the date and place of
interview.Example:MaryAnokye, OldTafo, 19June 1992.
Furtherabbreviationsinclude: BRCS: British Red Cross Society; NAGK ARA: National
Archivesof Ghana(Kumasi),Asante RegionalAdministrationCollection;PRO CO: Public
RecordOffice,ColonialOffice;WMMSWA 11/224:WesleyanMethodistMissionarySociety,
West Africa Collection,Fiche Box 11, Box 224; WMMSWW 1/1033:WesleyanMethodist
MissionarySociety,Women'sWorkCollection,FicheBox 1, Box 1033.
NOTES
1 This articleis partof a broaderstudyof genderand socialchangein Asantewhichhas
been supportedby the NationalEndowmentfor the Humanities,the Fulbright-Hays
Faculty
Research Programme,the Social Science Research Council, the University of Missouri
Research Council and the Instituteof African Studies, Universityof Ghana. I gratefully
acknowledgethis supportand also thank the followingfor providingaccess to important
archivaldocumentation:the Methodist ChurchOverseas Division (MethodistMissionary
Society);the BritishRed CrossSociety,ArchivesSection;RhodesHouseLibrary,Oxford;the
Libraryof the School of Oriental and African Studies; the Institute of African Studies,
Universityof Ghana;andthe PublicRecordOffice,London.An earlierversionof this article
was presentedat the NinthBerkshireConferenceon the Historyof Women,June1993.I wish
to thank Anna Davin, David Roediger, RichardRathbone and Anne Summersfor their
commentsandsuggestionsfor revision.
2 See Evelyn Sharp,TheAfricanChild:An Accountof the InternationalConferenceon
AfricanChildren,Geneva,Negro UniversitiesPress, 1970, reprintedfrom WeardalePress,
1931, pp.3, 26-29. See also PRO CO 323/1066:InternationalCongresson Childrenof
Non-EuropeanOrigin,1931andCO 323/1148:Congresson AfricanChildren,Geneva, 1931.
3 See Sharp,TheAfricanChild,pp. 37-38, 53, 112-15.
4 For two recent and accessible overviews of the literatureon biological v. social
motherhood,see FayeGinsburgandRaynaRapp,'ThePoliticsof Reproduction',TheAnnual
Reviewof Anthropology20, 1991,pp. 311-43andJeanO'Barr,DeborahPopeandMaryWyer,
'Introduction',to their(eds) TiesThatBind:Essayson MotheringandPatriarchy,Universityof
ChicagoPress, 1990, pp. 1-4. As Anna Davin arguedin 1978of welfareinitiativesin early
twentieth-century
Britain,'the focus on mothersprovidedan easy way out. It was cheaperto
blamethem and to organizea few classesthan to expandsocial and medicalservices,and it
avoided the politicalproblemof provokingrate and taxpayersby requiringextensive new
finance'. Anna Davin, 'Imperialismand Motherhood',History Workshop5, Spring 1978,
pp. 26-27.
5 See, forexample,the essayscollectedin ValerieFildes,LaraMarksandHilaryMarland
(eds), Womenand ChildrenFirst: InternationalMaternaland Infant Welfare,1870-1945,
Routledge,1992.
6 On the role of the Anglo-BoerWarin shapingmaternalandinfantwelfarediscoursein
Britain,see Davin, 'Imperialism',pp. 14-18andJaneLewis, ThePoliticsof Motherhood:Child
and MaternalWelfarein England,1900-1939,CroomHelm, 1980,pp. 14-16.
7 Lewis,Motherhood,p. 19 andDavin, 'Imperialism',p. 12. On the centralityof hygiene
andnutritionto childwelfarediscourse,see Davin, 'Imperialism',pp. 16-17, 52-54.
8 For a discussionof the originsof the term'mothercraft',see Davin, 'Imperialism',p. 39
andn. 116.
9 BarbaraRamusack,'CulturalMissionaries,MaternalImperialistsandFeministAllies:
BritishWomenActivistsin India,1865-1945',in NupurChaudhuriandMargaretStrobel(eds),
WesternWomenand Imperialism:Complicityand Resistance,IndianaUniversityPress, 1992,
pp. 119-36. See also VronWare,BeyondthePale: WhiteWomen,Racismand History,Verso,
1992,pp. 117-66.
10 As Jean and John Comaroffhave written, 'colonialismis as muchabout makingthe
center as it is about makingthe periphery'.See their 'Home-MadeHegemony:Modernity,
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Making Mothers
45
Domesticity, and Colonialismin South Africa', in Karen TranbergHansen (ed.), African
EncounterswithDomesticity,RutgersUniversityPress,1992,p. 67. NancyHunt'srecentwork
explorescolonialconstructionsof motherhoodanddomesticityin the BelgianCongo.See, for
example,her "'Le Bebe en Brousse":EuropeanWomen,AfricanBirthSpacingandColonial
Interventionin Breast Feeding in the Belgian Congo', InternationalJournal of African
HistoricalStudies21:3, 1988,pp. 401-32 and 'Domesticityand Colonialismin BelgianAfrica:
Usumbura'sFoyerSocial, 1946-1960',in O'Barr,Pope andWyer, TiesThatBind,pp. 149-76.
11 In addition to colonial governmentdocumentationavailable in Ghana and Great
Britain,this paper has utilizedthe archivesof the WMMS,particularlyits Women'sWork
Collection;the archivesof the BritishRed CrossSociety;and the OxfordColonialRecords
Project,RhodesHouse.
12 Ann Stoler'spioneeringworkunderscoresthe importanceof exploringcolonialismas an
'historicallylayered . .. encounter'and warnshistoriansagainstconflating'the makersof
metropolepolicy . . . with its local practitioners'.See her 'RethinkingColonialCategories:
EuropeanCommunitiesand the Boundariesof Rule', ComparativeStudiesin Societyand
History31:2, April, 1989,pp. 134-161.
13 Gareth Austin, 'The Emergence of CapitalistRelations in South Asante CocoaFarming,c. 1916-33',Journalof AfricanHistory28, 1987,pp. 160-62;BeverlyGrier,'Pawns,
Portersand Petty Traders:Women in the Transitionto Cash Crop Agriculturein Colonial
Ghana',Signs17:2, 1992,p. 314.
14 Austin'searlierworkties the abolitionof slaveryandpawnageto the initialuse of hired
labouron cocoafarms,butnot to changesin genderrelationswithinthe household.His recent
work, however,demonstratesquite convincinglythat pawnagewas not simplyabolished,but
declined in uneven, ambiguousand very gendered ways that profoundlyimpactedupon
pp. 264-65 and 'HumanPawningin Asante,
conjugalrelationships.See his 'Cocoa-Farming',
1800-1950:Marketsand Coercion, Gender and Cocoa', in Toyin Falola and Paul Lovejoy
(eds), Pawnshipin Africa,WestviewPress,forthcoming.
15 Penelope A. Roberts, 'The State and the Regulationof Marriage:Sefwi Wiawso
(Ghana), 1900-40',in Haleh Afshar(ed.), Women,State,and Ideology:Studiesfrom Africa
and Asia, State Universityof New York Press, 1987, p. 54. For colonial anthropologists'
discussionsof marriageandconjugalobligationsin Asante, see R.S. Rattray,ReligionandArt
in Ashanti,ClarendonPress, 1927,pp.76-102 andAshantiLaw and Constitution,Clarendon
Press,1929,pp. 22-32 andMeyerFortes,"KinshipandMarriageAmongthe Ashanti",in A.R.
Radcliffe-Brownand DaryllForde, (eds), AfricanSystemsof Kinshipand Marriage,Oxford
UniversityPress, 1970,pp. 252-84.
16 ChristineOkali, 'Kinshipand Cocoa Farmingin Ghana',in ChristineOppong(ed.),
FemaleandMalein WestAfrica,GeorgeAllen andUnwin, 1983,p. 170.
17 Austin, 'HumanPawning',p. 14.
18 Countlessnumbersof such cases can be foundin the recordbooks storedat Manhyia
RecordOfficein Kumasi.See, particularly,the recordsof the Kumasihene'sNativeTribunal,
1926-1935,the Asantehene'sDivisionalNative CourtB, 1935-60and the KumasiDivisional
('Clan')Courts,1928-45.For a recentexaminationof nativetribunalsand issuesof marriage
andinheritancein thesouthernGoldCoastColony,see RogerGocking,'BritishJusticeandthe
NativeTribunalsof the SouthernGold CoastColony',Journalof AfricanHistory34:1, 1993,
pp. 93-113.
19 Robertsnoted a similarpatternin Sefwi Wiawso.See her 'The State and Marriage',
pp. 54-55.
20 Megan Vaughan, Curing Their Ills: Colonial Power and African Illness, Stanford
UniversityPress, 1991, p. 144. African women's economic or social autonomywas often
interpretedas sexualuncontrollability.See, for example,NancyHunt, 'Noise Over CamouCrisisin BelgianAfrica',
flagedPolygamy,ColonialMortalityTaxation,anda Woman-Naming
Journal of African History 32, 1991, pp.471-94 and 'Domesticityand Colonialism',esp.
pp. 155-56;CarolSummers,'IntimateColonialism:The ImperialProductionof Reproduction
in Uganda, 1907-1925', Signs 16:4, 1991, pp. 787-807; and Elizabeth Schmidt, Peasants,
Tradersand Wives:ShonaWomenin theHistoryof Zimbabwe,1870-1939,Heinemann,1992,
esp. pp. 98-106.
21 Roberts, 'The State and Marriage',p. 49. See also Jean Allman, 'Of "Spinsters",
"Concubines"and "WickedWomen":Reflectionson Genderand SocialChangein Colonial
Asante', Genderand History3:2, 1991,pp. 176-89.
22 For example,chiefsandeldersrefusedto considerallowingwivesto inheritfromtheir
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46
HistoryWorkshopJournal
husbands,even if a womanhad workedfor yearson her husband'scocoa farm,for fear that
Asante women would simplypoison their husbandsin order to gain their inheritance.See
AsanteConfederacyCouncil,Minutesof the ThirdSession,7-23 March1938.Duringthissame
period, the meaningof adulterywas constantlyreformulatedin an effortto controlwomen's
sexuality. For a record of the changes not only in the meaning,but in the penalties and
compensationassociatedwithadultery,see J.N. Matson,A Digest of the Minutes of theAshanti
Confederacy Councilfrom 1935-1949 Inclusive and a Revised Edition of Warrington'sNotes on
Ashanti Custom, (CapeCoast)ProspectPrinting,c. 1951,pp. 26-27, 40-48 andthroughout.
23 For a discussionof Asokore's 1929 round-upof unmarriedwomen, see Allman,
"'Spinsters"',pp. 182-83.I haverecentlylocatedadditionaldocumentationon these arrestsat
the NationalArchivesin Kumasi.The arrestsare recalledtodayin vividdetailby manyof the
olderwomenin EffiduasiandAsokore.Robertsdiscussesa similarepisodein SefwiWiawsoin
'TheStateandMarriage',p. 61 andVellengamakesbriefreferenceto similarincidentsin 'Who
is a Wife?'in Oppong,Femaleand Male,p. 150andn. 11.
24 Jane Parpart,"'Where Is Your Mother?";Gender, Urban Marriageand Colonial
Discourseon the ZambianCopperbelt,1924-1945',unpublishedpaperdeliveredat the Ninth
BerkshireConferenceon the Historyof Women,VassarCollege,June, 1993,p. 19. Parpart's
recentworkon the ZambianCopperbeltalso highlightsthe connectionbetweenindirectrule
and attemptsto control'uncontrollable'women. 'Colonialofficialssympathizedwith African
men', she writes, 'when they complainedabout "cheeky, wayward"Africanwomen, and
indirectrulewaspartiallyan attemptto addressthisconcern'(p. 20).
25 Summers, 'Intimate Colonialism', p. 807. See also Vaughan, Curing Their Ills,
pp. 130-31.
26 See WilliamTordoff,AshantiUnderthePrempehs,1888-1935,OxfordUniversityPress,
1965,pp. 159(n. 2), 239-40.
27 Dabankaalso donatedthe land upon whichWesley Collegewas built. MaryAnokye,
Old Tafo, 19 June 1992;EfuaNsuah,Tafo, 24 June 1992;andAkua Senti, Old Tafo, 19 June
1992.
28 NAGK ARA/1741:P.S. Selwyn-Clarke,'KumasiHealthWeek, 1925'.
29 The Centre was originallybased on an agreementbetween the governmentand the
Methodistmission.The missionagreedto providethe doctorand nursesin charge,while the
governmentcoveredall other expenses. PRO CO 96/674/4:J.C. Maxwell,OfficerAdministeringthe Governmentto L.S. Amery,ColonialOffice,dd. [dated]Accra4 May 1927;Harry
Webster,WMMSto ColonialSecretary,dd. Accra,9 February1927;E.O. Thompson,WMMS
to Secretaryof State for the Colonies, dd. London, 12 July 1927. To this day, the Centre
continuesto rely heavilyon non-governmental
supportto carryout its day-to-dayoperations
(Dr IreneDes Bordes,PrincipalMedicalOfficerin Chargeof the Maternaland ChildHealth
Clinic,Kumasi,18June 1992).
30 PRO CO 98/58:Gold Coast, Reportson the Easternand WesternProvincesof Ashanti
for 1930-1931.
31 PRO CO 98/53:Gold Coast, Reporton Ashantifor the Year1928-1929.The figurefor
visitsrecordsthe numberof attendances,not the numberof womenwho attended.
32 PRO CO 98/58:Gold Coast,Reporton theMedicalDepartment
for the Year1930-1931.
33 BetweenMayandOctober,1992,andinJune-July,1993,the authorcollecteda seriesof
focussedlife historiesin AshantiNew Town(Kumasi),Tafo, EffiduasiandAsokore.
34 MaryAntwi, Ashtown,Kumasi,8 June 1992;AdwoaBrago,Ashtown,Kumasi,2 June
1992;AdwoaPoku,Ashtown,Kumasi3 June1992andEfuaSamata,Ashtown,Kumasi3 June
1992.Based upon his researchduringthe 1945-46'AshantiSocialSurvey',Forteswrote that
'only about a thirdof all marriedwomen residewith their husbands'.See Fortes, 'Kinship',
p. 262.
35 PRO CO 98/82:Gold Coast,Reporton theMedicalDepartment
for the Year1947.
36 Gold Coast, MidwivesOrdinance,No. 8 of 1931. Cf. Summers'sdescriptionof the
training, registrationand regulation of midwives in Uganda in 'Intimate Colonialism',
pp. 799-807throughout.
37 PRO CO 96/700:12:'Reporton the MidwivesOrdinance,1931'.For example,in 1937
there were 12,489antenatalvisitsmadeto the Centre,but only 405 babieswere deliveredby
certifiedmidwife- that is, by one of the two! See PRO CO 98/71:Gold Coast, Reporton the
MedicalDepartment
for the Year1937.
38 Ama Konadu,Ashtown,Kumasi,9 June1992.
39 As note 38.
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Making Mothers
47
40 F. DeavilleWalker,'Africa'sWomanhood- ThenandNow', Woman'sWork,October,
1934,p. 176.
41 PRO CO 96/673/8:HarryWebsterto F. GordonGuggisberg,dd. Accra, 15 February
1927.
42 WMMSWW:1/1033,Reportof the Women'sDepartment,1928;4/1043,P. Beer to D.
Leith, dd. Kumasi,6 April 1930.
43 WMMSWW: 8/1048, 'OfficialReport upon the KumasiMmofraturoGirls' School',
Kumasi,6 June1932andWMMSWA: 11/242,'Reportof Sub-Committeeon Women'sWork,
1931'.
44 See, forexample,NancyHunt,'ColonialFairyTalesandthe KnifeandForkDoctrinein
the Heart of Africa',in Hansen,AfricanEncounters,pp. 158-59;LaRayDenzer, 'Domestic
Science Trainingin Colonial Yorubaland,Nigeria', in Hansen, pp. 118-20; NakanyikeB.
Musisi,'ColonialandMissionaryEducation:WomenandDomesticityin Uganda,1900-1945',
in Hansen,pp. 174-75, 181-82;Schmidt,Peasants,p. 134.
45 WMMSWA: 11/242,'Reporton Mbofraturo,Kumasi,Synod1931'.
46 WMMSWW:1/1033,Women'sDepartment,'AnnualReport, 1934'.
47 PersisBeer, 'Beginnings',Woman'sWork,October,1933,p. 82.
48 As note 47.
49 MaryAnokye, OldTafo, 19June 1992.
50 For a discussionof non-parentalcaregiversand biologicalmotherhood,see Ginsburg
andRapp,'Reproduction',pp. 327-29.
51 Agnes Ama Dapah,Tafo, 22 June1992.
52 WMMSWW:4/1043,Elsie Lince, 'WorkAmongthe Womenof Ashanti',1932.
53 WMMSWW:1/1033,'Reporton Women'sWorkfor 1934'.
54 WMMSWW:1/1034:'MmofraturoReport, 1934'.Schmidtdescribesa similarscene in
Peasants,p. 149.
55 Afua Manu,Tafo, 25 June1992;Rose Afrakoma,Tafo, 25 June 1992.
56 Yaa Pokuaa,Tafo, 25 June1992.
57 MaryOduro,Effiduasi,25 August1992.
58 EfuahNsuah,Tafo, 24 June1992.
59 Rose Afrakoma,Tafo, 25 June1992.
60 AdwoaMansah,Tafo, 25 June 1992.
61 Agnes Ama Dapah,Tafo, 22 June 1992.
62 AkuaKankroma,Tafo, 23 June1992.
63 AdwoaTana,Tafo, 23 June1992.
64 AdwoaNsiah,Tafo, 29 June1992.
65 Afua Manu,Tafo, 25 June1992.
66 MaryAnokye, OldTafo, 19June 1992.
67 Rose Afrakoma,Tafo, 25 June 1992.
68 WMMSWW:6/1046,I. Masonto MissWalton,dd. Mmofraturo,24 October1937.
69 WMMSWW:7/1047,K. Whiteto MissWalton,dd. Kumasi,17June1941.
70 WMMSWW: 7/1047, K. White to Miss Walton, dd. Kumasi,31 January1942. Cf.
Davin, 'Imperialism',p. 54.
71 VictoriaAdjaye,Effiduasi,25 August1992.The thirdpersonsingularin Akandoes not
differentiategender.
72 Jean Asare, Effiduasi,24 August 1992;Kate Baa, Effiduasi,21 August, 1992;Rosina
Boama,Effiduasi,24 August1992.
73 KateBaa, Effiduasi,21 August1992.
74 WWMSWW:7/1310,G. Ash to MissWalton,dd. Kumasi,18July1948.
75 ComaroffandComaroff,'Home-MadeHegemony',p. 67.
76 As note 75.
77 KarlMarx,TheEighteenthBrumaireof LouisBonaparte,in MarxandFrederickEngels,
SelectedWorks,InternationalPublishers,1977,p. 97.
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